by Mike Whitney, The Unz Review:
Last weekend, US proxies launched a drone attack on a critical part of the TurkStream gas pipeline located in southwest Russia. The incident was largely ignored by the mainstream media, but its importance to energy starved Europeans cannot be overstated. The attack is clearly a continuation of the same hostile policy that led to the sabotage of the NordStream pipeline. (Note — The biggest act of industrial terrorism in history.) The strategic objective of these attacks is to isolate Russia by blocking all attempts at economic integration in order to divide the world into warring blocs. This process of ‘decoupling’ is intended to portray Russia as an emerging threat to the West thereby justifying Washington’s covert operations. This is from an article at the Asia Times:
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The Ukrainians sent nine drones to attack a natural gas compressor station in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. The compressor station was part of the TurkStream pipeline. All the drones were reportedly shot down. There was some minor damage, but the compressor station is operating normally.
The pipeline runs from Russia to Turkey (with) Some gas flows onwards to the European Union….
A key report says that “In 2024, Russian gas reached Europe via three routes: transit through Ukraine (30%), via Turkey and the Turkstream pipeline (31%) and as LNG (39%).” LNG deliveries come primarily from the US and Russia…. Neither the US nor Russia can increase LNG deliveries to make up for the cessation of transport through Ukraine. Had the Ukrainian attack on TurkStream been successful, over 60% of Europe’s imported natural gas supplies would have been cut off.
LNG is more expensive than pipeline gas, and there are problems with transport and transmission overland….
The destruction of most of the Nord Stream pipelines…., the Ukrainian shutdown and Ukraine’s attacks on TurkStream could very well destroy Europe’s ability to keep its factories running and homes and businesses heated…. The economic impact has already driven Germany into a recession and helped force the collapse of the Olaf Scholz coalition government….Cutting off gas deliveries and attacking pipelines that feed Europe could send Europe into a death spiral, but the Masters of Kyiv either don’t care or alternatively are trying to demonstrate to the Europeans that they better help bail out Ukraine or they will bite the hand that feeds them. Ukraine’s TurkStream pipeline attack sends a message to Europe, Asia Times
Naturally, a terrorist threat of this magnitude should have been headline news but, instead, the story was consigned to the back pages where it remained largely unnoticed. We must assume, however, that if the Ukrainian proxies were not acting on explicit orders from Washington, then US officials would have either rebuked them publicly or threatened to hold them accountable. But nothing like that happened. Instead, the White House shrugged off the incident as if nothing had taken place. That’s odd, isn’t it? The EU’s energy lifeline was a hair’s breadth away from obliteration, and the Biden crew didn’t show the slightest bit of interest. One can only conclude that their silence is an admission of guilt. In any event, Russia’s Top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, was not duped by Washington’s performance nor did he hesitate to identify the United States as the responsible party. At a news conference on Tuesday, Lavrov stated bluntly:
The US does not tolerate competition in any sphere, including energy. They are recklessly endorsing terrorist activities aimed at undermining the energy stability of the European Union. They are encouraging their Ukrainian proxies to disable TurkStream following the sabotage of Nord Stream.
Lavrov’s allegations were ignored by the western media as were similar claims during the NordStream fracas in 2022. Even so, it’s worth paying attention to the cavalier way that Washington treats its EU allies whose long-term economic viability is being sacrificed so the US can inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. That seems like a high price to pay for an objective that delivers no tangible benefit. Here’s more from Aljazeera:
